Dr. Deborah Cohen is the first woman to be certified as a
mohelet (female circumciser) by the Reform Jewish movement.
Career
Cohen was an obstetrician at
Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente (; KP) is an American integrated delivery system, integrated managed care consortium headquartered in Oakland, California. Founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield, Sidney R. Garfield, the ...
Hospital in Los Angeles. A family doctor, Cohen had first turned to the Conservative and Orthodox movements to be trained as a mohelet, but was denied. In early fall of 1981, Cohen contacted the
Hebrew Union College
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...
to ask for training, but the Reform movement had not yet trained any women to be mohalot. The Reform movement recognized that women could act as mohalot in 1984. The
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) until 2003, founded in 1873 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the congregational arm of Reform Judaism in North America. The other two arms establ ...
(now the Union for Reform Judaism), created the Brit Milah Board as the first circumcision training program offered by a liberal Jewish organization. She became the first woman to be trained as a mohelet by the Reform Jewish movement in 1984.
See also
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Jewish feminism
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branch ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Deborah
American obstetricians
American Reform Jews
Mohalim
People from Los Angeles
20th-century births